V. Zelenskyy: "It is time to do everything to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of this evil on earth - address by the President of Ukraine" Speech to the Nation 3 April 2022

 

 

Russian mothers! Even if you raised looters, how did they also become butchers? You couldn't be unaware of what's inside your children. You couldn't overlook that they are deprived of everything human. No soul. No heart. They killed deliberately and with pleasure.

I want all the leaders of the Russian Federation to see how their orders are being fulfilled. Such orders. Such a fulfillment. And joint responsibility. For these murders, for these tortures, for these arms torn off by explosions that lie on the streets. For shots in the back of the head of tied people.

This is how the Russian state will now be perceived. This is your image. (V. Zelenskyy, Speech to the Nation 4 April 2022) [Российские матери! Даже если вы растили мародеров, то как они стали еще и палачами? Вы не могли не знать, что внутри у ваших детей. Вы не могли не заметить, что они лишены всего человеческого. Нет души. Нет сердца. Они убивали сознательно и с удовольствием.  Я хочу, чтобы все руководители Российской Федерации увидели, как выполняются их приказы. Вот такие приказы. Вот такое исполнение. И солидарная ответственность. За эти убийства, за эти пытки, за эти оторванные взрывами руки, которые лежат на улицах. За выстрелы в затылок связанным людям. Вот так теперь будет восприниматься российское государство. Это ваш образ.]

 Many of the states that have carefully refused to involve themselves directly in the military campaigns that constitute one front in the Russian invasion, and the global counter-thrusts, now, in the face of mounting evidence of violence that exceeds standards for the waging of war and acquire the character of criminal activity even when measured against the standards (broadly interpreted) of war, now seek to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. This will require a vote of 2/3s of the members of the UN General Assembly and in effect will constitute a sense of the General Assembly that Russia is "persistently committing gross and systematic violations of human rights." (Reuters) The Russian reaction was not unexpected:

In New York, a visibly irritated Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, called the attempt to exclude Russia from the council as "unbelievable", adding that it was not going to be helpful for peace talks.

"This is again unprecedented and this will not facilitate or encourage or be helpful to what is happening between Russia and the Ukrainian peace talks," Nebenzia said at a press conference.

He repeated Russian denials of the accusations of atrocities in Bucha, saying the footage presented was "staged." He said Russia was going to present more evidence on the issue at Tuesday's planned U.N. Security Council meeting. (Reuters).

Russia is in its second year of a three-year term on the 47-member council, which cannot make legally binding decisions but its decisions send important political messages and it can authorise investigations.

Last month it opened an investigation into allegations of rights violations, including possible war crimes, in Ukraine since Russia's invasion. Thirty-two members voted in favour of the resolution, brought by Ukraine. Russia and Eritrea voted against while 13, including China, abstained.

Nor was the silence of the Chinese Mission. 

And yet, even if unsuccessful, that action continues to push forward the quite effective assault both on Russia's credibility (that is one that produces a successful assault on Russian narrative credibility in public and private fora), and on its ability to use the discursive battlefield effectively to support its military operations aimed. Military and discursive objectives have had to be changed quickly in light of the ineffectiveness of both. And it is not clear that the Russians will be able to recover anything like a credible discursive position even if they are able to reverse their military failures.

 Yet it is the consequence of those failures--of military objectives--when combined with what appears to be the great success of its tactics (indiscriminate sexual abuse, mass killings of civilians, destruction of civilian targets unconnected to military objectives--the tactics so well used in pacifying Chechnya and perhaps to some extent Syria) that will combine to produce what is likely to be both the greatest tragedies of this Russian initiated war (for the Ukrainian people) and the greatest cost to Russia, its leaders, and ultimately its people. 

The extent of the disastrous policy for Russia, its leaders and people--one that when supported by evidence presented in those institutional fora created for the official recognition and punishment of such actions--is already producing substantial consequences.  Here one sees the fruits of what in this instance appears to be a decisive victory in the field of discourse and narrative, which has been driven effectively by Ukraine's President Zelenskyy and is core leadership group as they relentlessly project narrative power globally. But the effects are not confined to pretty words or influential narrative.  Its consequences are already being felt.  In the realm of public law with the assaults on Russian global participation in international forums, as well as the likley effort to prosecute its leaders and others  under the Rome Statute (and the state itself in the International Court of Justice). As important is the start of a long tilt of European (especially) but also other states away from regimes of free movement of goods, investment, and capital that include Russia.  Once the problem of natural gas supplies are solved (and it will take some time to finalize but has already started--with a focus on Mediterranean sources), the full price of the Russian effort to attempt a 19th century acquisition of territory to add to empires, the last of which became obsolete in the late 1980s, will be better revealed.

But the discourse, the discourse, is worth savoring. And studying. Not merely for students of rhetoric or narrative construction.  But especially for students of post global warfare. Of particular note may be  the3 April 2022 speech of President Zelanskyy to the Nation: V. Zelenskyy: "It is time to do everything to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of this evil on earth - address by the President of Ukraine" Speech to the Nation 3 April 2022. Every one of those words is a weapon as effective, if not more so, than the those necessary to meet the more old fashioned but brutally deadly physical warfare now brought into Ukrainian territory by an invading force.

Those weapons are not aimed merely at the Russians. 

There will definitely be a new package of sanctions against Russia. But I'm sure that's not enough. More conclusions are needed. Not only about Russia, but also about the political behavior that actually allowed this evil to come to our land.

Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the NATO summit in Bucharest. Then there was a chance to take Ukraine out of the "gray zone" in Eastern Europe. Out of the "gray zone" between NATO and Russia.

Out of the gray zone, in which Moscow thinks they are allowed everything. Even the most dreadful war crimes. ("It is time to do everything to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of this evil on earth - address by the President of Ukraine")

The full text of that speech follows below. 

It is time to do everything to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of this evil on earth - address by the President of Ukraine

3 April 2022 - 21:22

Today this address will be without greetings. I do not want any extra words.

Presidents do not usually record addresses like this. But today I have to say just that. After what was revealed in Bucha and our other cities the occupiers were expelled from. Hundreds of people were killed. Tortured, executed civilians. Corpses on the streets. Mined area. Even the bodies of the dead were mined!

The pervasive consequences of looting. Concentrated evil has come to our land. Murderers. Torturers. Rapists. Looters. Who call themselves the army. And who deserve only death after what they did.

I want every mother of every Russian soldier to see the bodies of the killed people in Bucha, in Irpin, in Hostomel. What did they do? Why were they killed? What did the man who was riding his bicycle down the street do? Why were ordinary civilians in an ordinary peaceful city tortured to death? Why were women strangled after their earrings were ripped out of their ears? How could women be raped and killed in front of children? How could their corpses be desecrated even after death? Why did they crush the bodies of people with tanks? What did the Ukrainian city of Bucha do to your Russia? How did all this become possible?

Russian mothers! Even if you raised looters, how did they also become butchers? You couldn't be unaware of what's inside your children. You couldn't overlook that they are deprived of everything human. No soul. No heart. They killed deliberately and with pleasure.

I want all the leaders of the Russian Federation to see how their orders are being fulfilled. Such orders. Such a fulfillment. And joint responsibility. For these murders, for these tortures, for these arms torn off by explosions that lie on the streets. For shots in the back of the head of tied people.

This is how the Russian state will now be perceived. This is your image.

Your culture and human appearance perished together with the Ukrainian men and women to whom you came.

I approved a decision to create a special mechanism of justice in Ukraine for the investigation and judicial examination of every crime of the occupiers on the territory of our state. The essence of this mechanism is the joint work of national and international experts: investigators, prosecutors and judges. This mechanism will help Ukraine and the world bring to concrete justice those who unleashed or in any way participated in this terrible war against the Ukrainian people and in crimes against our people.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the National Police, the Security Service, the Intelligence Service and other structures within their competence must make every effort to ensure that the mechanism is operational immediately.

I call on all our citizens and friends of Ukraine in the world who can join this work and help establish justice to do so.

The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth.

Everyone guilty of such crimes will be included in a special Book of Torturers, will be found and punished.

Ukrainians!

I want you to realize that. We drove the enemy out of several regions. But Russian troops still control the occupied areas of other regions. And after the expulsion of the occupiers, even worse things can be found there. Even more deaths and tortures. Because this is the nature of the Russian military who came to our land. These are bastards who can't do otherwise. And they had such orders.

All partners of Ukraine will be informed in detail about what happened in the temporarily occupied territory of our state. War crimes in Bucha and other cities during the Russian occupation will also be considered by the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

There will definitely be a new package of sanctions against Russia. But I'm sure that's not enough. More conclusions are needed. Not only about Russia, but also about the political behavior that actually allowed this evil to come to our land.

Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the NATO summit in Bucharest. Then there was a chance to take Ukraine out of the "gray zone" in Eastern Europe. Out of the "gray zone" between NATO and Russia.

Out of the gray zone, in which Moscow thinks they are allowed everything. Even the most dreadful war crimes.

Under optimistic diplomatic statements that Ukraine could become a member of NATO, then, in 2008, refusal to accept Ukraine into the Alliance was hidden. The absurd fear of some politicians towards Russia was hidden. They thought that by refusing Ukraine, they would be able to appease Russia, to convince it to respect Ukraine and live normally next to us.

During the 14 years since that miscalculation, Ukraine has experienced a revolution and eight years of war in Donbas. And now we are fighting for life in the most horrific war in Europe since World War II.

I invite Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years. To see with their own eyes the tortured Ukrainian men and women.

I want to be understood correctly. We do not blame the West. We do not blame anyone but the specific Russian military who did this against our people. And those who gave them orders. But we have the right to talk about indecision. About the path to such Bucha, to such Hostomel, to such Kharkiv, to such Mariupol. We have no indecision. No matter whether we are in a certain bloc or non-aligned, we understand one thing: we must be strong.

Fourteen years ago, Russia's leader in Bucharest told Western leaders that there was no country like Ukraine. And we prove that there is such a country. It was and it will be.

We will not hide behind the strong of this world. We will not beg anyone.

Honestly, we shouldn’t have asked for help with weapons to protect ourselves from this evil that came to our land. All the necessary weapons should have been given to us anyway - without requests. Because they themselves realized what evil had come and what it had brought with it.

We see what’s at stake in this war. We see what we are defending.

There are standards of the Ukrainian army - moral and professional. And it is not our army that has to adjust now. These are many other armies that should learn from our military.

And there are standards of the Ukrainian people. And there are standards of the Russian occupiers. This is good and evil. This is Europe and a black hole that wants to tear it all apart and absorb.

We will win this war. Even if individual politicians are still unable to overcome the indecision they will pass on to their successors together with their offices.

And all the necessary services are already working in Bucha to bring the city back to life. Restore electricity supply, water supply. Restore the work of medical institutions. Rebuild the infrastructure. Give security to people. Because Russia was expelled. And Ukraine is returning. And brings life back.

Today I visited our border guards, our heroes in the hospital of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine. Wounded warriors.

I presented state awards to the eight of them. I also awarded the orthopedist-traumatologist - medical service officer who is a leading military traumatologist in Ukraine and has already saved many Ukrainian defenders.

In total, 41 border guards received state awards under this decree.

It was the servicemen of the State Border Guard Service who first met the occupiers with fire when they went on the offensive on February 24. Now our boys and girls are returning to the state border as we expel the occupiers.

I am sure the time will come and the whole line of the state border of Ukraine will be restored.

And for this to happen sooner, we must all be focused, ready to boldly face evil and respond to every criminal act against Ukraine, against our people, against our freedom.

Evil will be punished.

Glory to Ukraine!